No. 3 University of California-Davis Manages No. 2 University of Michigan 7-6 to Advance to 2011 National Collegiate Club Championship Game

Laura Heddleston

May 07, 2011

NOTRE DAME, Ind.
-- No. 3 University of California-Davis converted on
six-of-nine man-advantage opportunities to edge No. 2 University of
Michigan 7-6 in the semifinals of the 2011 Women's National
Collegiate Club Championship at the University of Notre Dame.

The victory places the Aggies into
their first National Collegiate Club Championship game as the
Sierra Pacific Division champion will square off with three-time
defending titleist and Pacific Coast Division champion California
Polytechnic State University at 12:45 p.m. on Sunday, May 8 for the
national title.

For UC-Davis, the title game will
be a new experience, but for six-time National Champion Cal Poly,
which will appear in the program's ninth title game over the past
10 years, the championship experience is the norm. During the
past decade, the Mustangs have defeated Michigan State University
(2003), Dartmouth College (2004, 2005), the University of Oregon
(2008), Notre Dame (2009) and the University of Michigan (2010),
while falling to Michigan State (2002) and Fresno State University
(2007).

This time out, Cal Poly will be
seeking to become the first collegiate club program (men's or
women's) to claim four consecutive titles as the current Mustangs
look to snap a streak they share with the 2003-05 Cal Poly
squads.

However, history may be on the side
of the Aggies against Cal Poly as the Mustangs have only faced one
Sierra Pacific squad in the title game, Fresno State, and fell to
the Bulldogs when Oregon hosted thte 2007 tournament.

Further, this will not mark the
first time the two teams have faced-off on a pool deck as the game
is a rematch of a regular season tournament contest between the two
teams as Cal Poly downed the Aggies 5-3 early in the season.

Now, in the final collegiate club
contest of both teams' seasons, the question will be which program
improved the most during the course of the season and will leave
the home of the "Golden Dome" with the Collegiate Water Polo
Association (CWPA) National Collegiate Club Championship
plaque?

For UC-Davis, the path to the title
game went through the Wolverines as the Aggies converted Michigan's
mistakes into goals tallying five man-up scores and a five-meter
penalty shot to account for six of the program's seven goals in the
contest.

The Aggies jumped on the scoreboard
with 4:37 left in the first period as Sarah Skinker (Fr.,
San Diego, Calif.) registered a man-up goal.
Michigan responded 12 seconds later with a skip shot by
Milli Brown (Jr., Rockford, Mich.) to knot the
game before Anne-Lise Maag (Gr., Menlo Park,
Calif.) contributed a score at 1:32 to give the Wolverines
a narrow 2-1 lead.

Michigan's lead grew to 3-1 prior
to the end of the first quarter of play as Maag struck again with
51 seconds remaining on the period clock to put the Aggies in an
early hole.

Following another goal by Brown to
extend the Wolverines' advantage to 4-1 with 6:41 left in the
second period, UC-Davis began to climb back into the game with
Skinker and Kelley Oreglia (Sr., Camarillo,
Calif.) converting on Wolverines' miscues for man-up goals
at 5:57 and 35 seconds, respectively, to dice Michigan's lead down
to 4-3 by the halftime intermission.

Michigan attempted to regain the
score pad that it lost in the later half of the second period as
Clio Finnegan (So., Ann Arbor, Mich.) posted her
team's lone man-up conversion of the day with five minutes left in
the third period, but the Aggies reeled off back-to-back scores to
even the tallies at 5-to-5 with 3:32 on the clock.

Erika Leima (Gr.,
Pleasanton, Calif.) started the equalizing run with a
line-drive shot at 4:34 before Emily Muniz (Gr., Saratoga,
Calif.) netted another Aggies' man-up score at 3:32 to
balance the scoreboard.

Muniz's goal was a turning point in
the game for UC-Davis as the Aggies took their first lead of the
game since Skinker's opening salvo when Player of the Game
Tiffany Cheung (Jr., San Jose, Calif.) rattled the
cage with a scoring-shot on a five-meter penalty at 2:59 to put
UC-Davis in front 6-5.

The lead lasted for 29 seconds
before Paula Finnegan (So., Ann Arbor, Mich.) beat
UC-Davis goalie Laura Heddleston (Sr., Sacramento,
Calif.) with 2:30 on the period clock to set the teams on
even ground at 6-to-6 with 9:30 left in regulation during the third
and fourth periods.

Needing a score to keep the
Wolverines at bay until a potentially back-and-forth fourth period,
Cheung delivered her team's final man-up goal and score of the day
at the 1:18 mark to return the Aggies to a narrow 7-6 lead.

The goal turned out to be more
decisive than anyone thought as neither team tallied much of
anything in the fourth period combining for five timeouts along
with an ejection on Leima with the clock winding down to the zero
hour for the Wolverines' title hopes.

A critical component to UC-Davis'
semi-upset of Michigan was the play of Heddleston, as the senior
goalie turned away eight shots and kept the Michigan shooters at
bay for most of the second half to allow her team to climb out of
an early scoring hole and claim a shot at making history by ending
the Mustangs' title reign.

For the Maize and Blue,
Marley Andrews (So., Hudsonville, Mich.) also
posted eight saves, while Brown and Maag led the Wolverines'
offense with pairs of goals.

Michigan will not have an easy task
in the third place game as the Wolverines will need to knock-off
No. 5 University of Oregon at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday
morning.

The Ducks, who fell to Cal Poly 7-1
in the other semifinal game, could seek a level of revenge against
the Wolverines as Michigan defeated Oregon during the 2007 event by
a 6-5 final before falling to eventual national champion Cal Poly
by an 8-6 score in the tournament semifinals.